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ALCOFORADO, MARIANNA (1640-1723)
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See also:ALCOFORADO, MARIANNA (1640-1723) , Portuguese authoress, writer of the Letters of .a Portuguese See also:Nun, was the daughter of a landed proprietor in See also:Alemtejo. See also:Beja, her birthplace, was the See also:chief See also:garrison See also:town of that See also:province, itself the See also:principal See also:theatre of the twenty-eight. years' See also:war with See also:Spain that followed the Portuguese revolution of 164o, and her widowed See also:father, occupied with administrative and military commissions, placed Marianna in her childhood in the wealthy See also:convent of the Conception for See also:security and See also:education. She made her profession as a Franciscan nun at sixteen or earlier, without any real vocation, and lived a routine See also:life in that somewhat relaxed See also:house until her twenty-fifth See also:year, when she met See also:Noel Bouton. This See also:man, afterwards See also:marquis de Chamilly, and See also:marshal of See also:France, was one of the See also:French See also:officers who came to See also:Portugal to serve under the See also:great See also:captain, See also:Frederick, See also:Count See also:Schomberg, the re-organizer of the Portuguese See also:army. During the years 1665—1667 Chamilly spent much of his See also:time in and about Beja, and probably became acquainted with the Alcoforado See also:family through Marianna's See also:brother, who was a soldier. See also:Custom then permitted religious to receive and entertain visitors, and Chamilly, aided by his military See also:prestige and some flattery, found small difficulty in betraying the trustful nun. Before See also:long their intrigue became known and caused a See also:scandal, and to avoid the consequences Chamilly deserted Marianna and withdrew clandestinely to France. The letters to her See also:lover which have earned her renown in literature were written between See also:December 1667 and See also:June 1668, and they described the successive stages of faith, doubt and despair through which she passed. As a piece of unconscious psychological self-See also:analysis, they are unsurpassed; as a product of the See also:Peninsular See also:heart they are unrivalled. These five See also:short letters written by Marianna to " expostulate her See also:desertion " See also:form one of the few documents of extreme human experience, and reveal a See also:passion which in the course of two centuries has lost nothing of its See also:heat. Perhaps their dominant See also:note is reality, and, sad See also:reading as they are from the moral standpoint, their See also:absolute candour, exquisite tenderness and entire self-See also:abandonment have excited the wonder and admiration of great men and See also:women in every See also:age, from Madame de See also:Sevigne to W. E. See also:Gladstone. There are signs in the fifth See also:letter that Marianna had begun to conquer her passion, and after a life of rigid See also:penance, accompanied by much suffering, she died at the age of eighty-three. The letters came into the See also:possession of the See also:comte de Guilleragues, director of the See also:Gazette de France, who turned them into French, and they were published anonymously in See also:Paris in See also:January 1669. A See also:Cologne edition of the same year stated , that Chamilly was their addressee, which is confirmed by St See also:Simon and See also:Duclos, but the name of their authoress remained undivulged. In 181o, however, Boissonade discovered Marianna's name written in a copy of the first edition by a contemporary See also:hand, and the veracity of this ascription has been placed beyond doubt by the See also:recent investigations of Luciano Cordeiro, who found a tradition in Beja connecting the French captain and the Portuguese nun. The letters created a sensation on their first See also:appearance, See also:running through five See also:editions in a year, and, to exploit their popularity, second parts, replies and new replies were issued from the See also:press in See also:quick See also:succession. Notwithstanding that the Portuguese See also:original of the five letters is lost, their genuineness. is as patent as the spuriousness of their followers, and though See also: The French See also:text of the editio princeps was printed in the first edition (1893) of this See also:book. See also:Edmund See also:Gosse in the Fortnightly See also:Review, vol. xlix. (old See also:series) p. 5o6, shows the considerable See also:influence exercised by the Letters on the sentimental literature of France and See also:England. (E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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